The rest of Spring Break...

Although we had a wonderful vacation, when we got back I only had a few short days to get things done around the house.  Also, as much time as I love spending with Gage, I did send him to school Thursday and Friday. We pay WAY too much for him to miss an entire week and unfortunately there are some things that I needed to get done around the house that don't involve a 17 month old.  Sometimes I feel guilty, though  I suppose I should take advantage while I have daycare as an option.

So I had a mission on Thursday, the weather was supposed to be nice and I was damned and determined to get some flowers in my beds.  If only I had taken pictures of the before....OMG.  As soon as Luke and I spent over 2 hours digging up EVERYTHING that existed, I thought, "I should've taken a picture."  Anyway, it looked something like this...

....except without the pretty colors.

This is probably more like it.

It was overgrown with what I consider the most evil plant in existence.....lariopy!  I know, I know, it's decorative and people love it, but I HATE IT.  It's just one of those things that you have to closely monitor before it takes over the entire bed.  Last summer, with Gage being so little, I did nothing to my beds and I hated the way they looked.  The summer that I was pregnant, I tried to plant some perennials in hopes they would rebloom last summer....no luck.  However, guess what is back this summer??  2 out of 6, not too bad.  Anyway, it took us hours to clear the whole bed, then Luke proceeded to mulch on another day for an hour and I finally got the flowers down on Thursday after a few hours and I think it looks pretty nice.  If you have a green thumb, then it's not impressive but I'm the girl who purchased 'Gardening for Dummies' once so for me, it's success.  AND at least it looks like someone who lives here cares and we're not that vacant house on the corner!

I didn't realize how bad these pictures looked, as you can tell, we need to mulch again.

Thursday afternoon after my gardening rant, I picked Gage up from school and changed him to go see the Easter Bunny.  It wasn't as bad as Santa, but the picture is still pretty funny.  He was all excited about the bunny and couldn't stand to wait in line, repeatedly saying 'bubby', 'bubby', 'Easa bubby'.  He even said yes when I asked him if he wanted to see the Easter Bunny.  But you know the rest of the story, as soon as I put him down, he screamed! (See yesterday's Wordless Wednesday.)  Meanwhile, you can enjoy some pictures of Gage in his Easter outfit.  I had to try to snag a few since I knew the actual bunny picture wouldn't be so cute.

Always must have chalk in his hand if he's outside.

Momma's cutie pie.

Wordless Wednesday- Easter Edition

Gage's newest school picture at 16 mos.

Ha!

NEWS FLASH

My son ate 2 chicken strips for lunch on Monday and an entire hamburger today!  This is the kid who eats NO meat aside from turkey- sometimes!

Big Step....

Lately, Gage has had a language explosion. There's almost nothing he can't say....I think, this is in part due to being in the toddler room at daycare with almost 2 year olds who all talk very well. While we were on our trip last week, Gage started to repeat phrases we would say like "big step" or "Daddy's hat". Repeating is one thing, I understand, but when later on he says these phrases again, I consider him knowing what they mean or at least putting them into a context. He also says "Mommy's clock", "see ya" and "uh-oh Elmo" or "uh-oh Nuk" or whatever he has thrown over the side of his crib, down our stairs, or his new favorite thing, into our trashcan. It is definitely amazing to hear what he comes up with and to hear him call the teachers and other kids in his class by name. He can repeat ANYTHING we say, but most often if it's too many words, he'll just repeat the last two. Although he's still clumsy and falls alot, at least he has something going for him....it's definitely true what they say- they are either walkers or talkers.

Unrelated to language, I think it's so cool to watch kids this age become really interested in a particular thing, character, etc.  For instance, Gage can spot El-bo from a MILE away and is really pretty obssessed.  We have one or 2 Elmo books, and I just bought him some Elmo sippys.  I'm sure this is a foreshadowing of things yet to come, but I'm ok with that.  I love Elmo too, although I wish he'd speak a little more grammatcially correct ;).  My kid does need an Elmo shirt, though, anyone know where I can get one?  FYI, can you believe there are NO Elmo shower curtains?

Another thing that Gage is obssessed with is flags.  It started months ago, but now he has a word for them 'guys' (don't ask me why?)  And my boy can spot an American flag in a Where's Waldo? picture.  No matter what we are trying to get him to look at, all he cares about is the flags and if it's red, white and blue, all the better.

Easter 2011

Our day was pretty much perfect.  We got up and got Gage dressed in his super cute Easter outfit (shorts that I just bought him yesterday, because it was in the 80's today) and went to church.  Gage hasn't been to church in a while and wasn't too keen on sitting or staying still for that matter, but as long as there was music he was fine.  However, there won't be many church trips in our immediate future, at least until he learns to sit a little better or we find a church with a good nursery.

After church we took a wagon ride because we knew it would be too hot later on.  As always, Gage enjoyed the breeze blowing through his hair.  We came inside to eat lunch and Momma started her cookin'.  On today's menu (planned yesterday, so give me a break) was a chicken, broccoli, rice and cheese casserole (thanks to Mandy at Twice Blessed), scalloped potatoes with  ham and bread pudding.  Nothing fancy, but at least something different.  Gage and I also made Easter cookies yesterday.  They were an absolute pain to make, but tasted surprisingly good.  After lunch was napping for Gage and brand new stroller assembly for Mom!

I've been wanting one of these for a while now, so let's see if I'll get off my butt and use it!  We then ventured out for ice cream and a trip to the toy store.  Daddy came away only a few dollars short!  The hot weather put us in summer mode and we bought a new pool and sprinkler for Gage to play in...we're gonna need it these next few days.  We had Easter dinner and now we have to get ready for another week at work:(  Boo!  Only 7 more weeks of work, though.  Hope you enjoyed your Easter-with your family or however you spent it.

Hoppy Easter and Happy 1st Birthday to our BFF Sawyer!

If you read this blog, then you've met Sawyer, my friend Sarah's little boy.  He is one year old today and we want to wish him the best birthday ever.  Last week, Sawyer came over to play and we had a little birthday party for just he and Gage, complete with presents and rainbow cupcakes.  I'm not sure why I never posted pictures....probably b/c Blogger ate them or some nonsense.  In any case, here they are.  I'll be back later to update you on our Easter.

Sawyer enjoyed the cupcakes.

As good as we could get...

A new baby!

I almost forgot!  One of my very best friends from high school, Brett and his wife, Meg, welcomed their 1st baby boy into the world yesterday evening!  Gage and I were supposed to go visit them later today to make the final days of pregnancy go a little faster...ah well, guess Baby Kellen Marlin had other plans!  Congratulations Brett and Meg!